Saturday Sky through Stained Glass (and mysteries solved)

Astrid asked about the stained glass window reflected in the TV in a recent post. Here it is, up close and personal with yesterday’s Saturday Sky dimly seen through it, and yes, it’s original to our 1891 Victorian money sinkhole house (still under reconstruction).

This is south-facing in our living room, and casts a lovely warm light in the winter, as you might imagine. (In the summer, the trees are leafed out and the sun is higher and doesn’t shine in directly quite as much.) It’s one of three stained glass windows that remain in our house. Our most beautiful one, I’ve shown you before, quite some time ago, on a cloudy winter day when the Saturday Sky was not so inspiring and was definitely prettier seen through the window:

The third stained glass window is at the landing of our front staircase (there used to be two stairways, which was a little silly for a house which is really fairly small, so in the dual interests of preventing our toddler daughters from tumbling down the narrow back stair and of enlarging the tiny second floor bathroom, we closed off the back stairs a decade ago). Yesterday’s Sky again through the last window:

But the man who used to own this house and rent it out to college boys (who still lives next door) had a window the same size, so took the stained glass window to put in his house. Yes, it’s a nice window. I can see it in his house any time I walk by. He didn’t think it was fair that this house had 4 windows and his house (not quite as old) had none. So why didn’t he live in our house? It’s the one that needed a ton of work. Used to be a college fraternity….

Anyway, yesterday’s Saturday Sky was worth seeing all by itself. I went with daughter #1 to ballet class, as we did last Saturday, and both daughters’ plans for the day involved chauffeurage. My husband was working. I resisted spending all afternoon in the car, so negotiated one-way driving (both plans involved friends, so carpooling happened). Here’s our landmark, Grandad’s Bluff, less than a mile from my house as I wait to turn my car towards the mall to pick up daughter #1 and her friend.

That wind almost looks southerly, but I think it was mostly west. Not very warm, it’s been subzero F every night.

Other bluffs on the way to the mall (at least it’s a pretty drive if you ignore the highway and billboards); click to embiggen if desired.

And one more bluff on the way back, with the afternoon sun highlighting it.

(The RockStar’s friend might think I’m a bit odd for taking photos at the stop light. Who knows?)

Lastly, a brief glimpse of Saturday Sunset fire between the houses across the street.

A lovely day.

Wish I had taken a walk; instead I drove girls here and there after dance, cleaned a bit, knit and read, and went to a work party in the evening. I did dance, then, also! Not ballet, granted.

By the way-–

Apropos of last weekend’s Saturday Sky with Mystery Birds post, I do believe Manise has solved the mystery. The birds that looked like robins but couldn’t be, were:

Robins!

Robins HAVE been reported to overwinter occasionally in the north, upon further research, though I’ve never seen one before (their return to our neighborhood in April or so is one of those signs of spring, you know?). I believe I didn’t recognize them as such, because:

1) I’ve never really seen them from below: they’re usually hopping on the ground to find food. Obviously not an option right now.

2) They were in a flock, and I’ve never seen robins flock. In the spring, I see them by ones and twos.

3) They had their feathers all puffed against the cold, and that changed their shape (I have seen them like this once in the spring, when there was a sudden cold snap)

4) I didn’t EXPECT to see them! (the real kicker)

The ‘wing bar’ does seem to have been a fortuitously placed snowflake falling.

After Manise commented, I Googled using different search terms, and found a report that robins have been reported to be overwintering in unusually large numbers in SE Minnesota (right across the Mississippi from me), in places they’ve never been reported to overwinter. (Bad winter to decide to spend up north, may I add, dear robins.)

The vinyl on the window is rather like the marbled metallic contact paper paper my mother felt compelled to put on the inside back of the solid walnut bookcase/secretary that my great-grandfather built. (It has since been removed.)

I love when you post pictures of Grandad’s Bluff. I do a double take and then remember that you live right there, so of course! Takes me right back home. It’s strange to me how very familiar and recognizable that chunk of rock is!

You have a beautiful house,. But I don’t envy the location. I got back from northern Sweden a few months ago. I lived in a small quaint (but no stained glass) house there for a while. If you didn’t put enough wood in the stove icicles formed in the cabinets. Running just electric would leave no money for food. I decided to move to N. NV. ‘More affordable than S. CA. And less cold than N.SE. But if you would prefer endless pines with no billboards, you might consider moving. In the right house….. Google: Sweden High Coast

I have a theory about the birds. I have noticed that many birds have been getting larger and more aggressive over the years. Probably as protection against human introduced predators, such as cats and rats. The extra size would make it harder and less necessary to migrate. I think someday they will become warm blooded dinosaurs. Its good for us that most of them are vegetarian. I wonder about the crows and the seagulls though. Some are already approaching raven size. And they don’t mind taking what they feel like.